Tidings Magazine

In the September1912 issue of Empiremagazine, Frank Schloesser describes the cuisine of our youngcountry, then less than fifty years old, as follows: “When onecomes to Canada, one is on somewhat delicate ground, for leavingaside the splendid traditions of good French bourgeois cookery in theprovince of Quebec, Canadian food may roughly be divided into therough-and-tumble in the wilds, where, after all, little else could beexpected, and the very American food in the towns.

While the culinarylandscape may have been bleak in Schloesser’s time, today it’shard to imagine anything could be better. From Salt Spring Island toLunenberg, modern Canadian cuisine is exceptional. But what exactlyis Canadian cuisine? Ask four chefs and you’ll find there isn’tany one answer; there are many. 

Sean Furlong,executive chef at Dayboat on Prince Edward Island, has cooked fromVancouver to Toronto to PEI. Unlike France, Italy and other countrieswhose cuisine is easily identifiable, Sean says our culinarytradition is impossible to generalize. “Canada is a newer countryand it’s multicultural. Our cuisine is as diversified as we are.It’s a combination of a lot of different cultures. It’s evolving,made of Canadian ingredients and traditions and impossible to narrowdown.”

Karen Barnaby,executive chef at Vancouver’s Fish House in Stanley Park, saysthere are Canadian ingredients but no Canadian dishes. What is aCanadian ingredient? “Something that grows indigenously,” saysBarnaby. Among them are Pacific salmon, Saskatchewan wild rice,Atlantic lobster, blackberries, Saskatoon berries and maple syrup.

Sometimes we don’tappreciate what’s local. As a child, my grandfather, born andraised in Halifax, always hoped to trade his lobster lunch with aclassmate for “something better.” My father, a west-coastmariner, has eaten so much wild Pacific salmon, he’s all but swornit off for life, while my Toronto cousins covet it so much theyalways stow a fresh salmon in the overhead bin when returning from awest-coast visit. It’s a story we hear —and live — very often.

Tim Matsell isexecutive chef at Muk a Muk (Chinook for “food and feasting”)Bistro near Banff. “We’re overlooking a valley, on the edge of anational park where Saskatoon berries, raspberries, strawberries andprairie sage grow wild. Canada’s First Peoples came from the plainsto hunt bison here,” Matsell says. “Our cuisine reflects thehistory and edible ingredients of the area.”

Mehdi Brunet,sous-chef at Martin Picard’s Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal, sees ita little differently: “The dishes become Canadian as recipes evolveand local ingredients are used.” Executive Chef Martin Picard’spoutine is a fine example of a kind of evolution: he serves thisquintessential French Canadian comfort food with foie gras. (Pied deCochon dishes out roughly 80 kilos of foie gras a week — the mostused/served in any restaurant in North America.)

Here are fourrecipes the chefs have generously provided. They represent some ofthe very best in modern Canadian cuisine.

Karen Barnaby, The Fish House in Stanley Park, Vancouver, BC

Salmon with Maple Glaze

Tim Matsell, Executive Chef, Muk a Muk Bistro, near Banff, AB

Alberta Bison Shortribs Braised in Dark Ale with Blueberries

Sean Furlong, Executive Chef, Dayboat, near Hunter River, PEI

Martin Picard, Au Pied de Cochon, Montreal, QC

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